Macbeth

am settled, and bend up
Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
False face must hide what the false heart doth know. Exeunt.

Act II

Scene I

Court of Macbeth’s castle.

	Enter Banquo, and Fleance bearing a torch before him.
Banquo	How goes the night, boy?
Fleance	The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
Banquo	And she goes down at twelve.
Fleance	I take’t, ’tis later, sir.
Banquo	Hold, take my sword. There’s husbandry in heaven; Their candles are all out. Take thee that too. A heavy summons lies like lead upon me, And yet I would not sleep: merciful powers, Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature Gives way to in repose!
	Enter Macbeth, and a Servant with a torch.
	Give me my sword. Who’s there?
Macbeth	A friend.
Banquo	What, sir, not yet at rest? The king’s a-bed: He hath been in unusual pleasure, and Sent forth great largess to your offices. This diamond he greets your wife withal, By the name of most kind hostess; and shut up In measureless content.
Macbeth	Being unprepared, Our will became the servant to defect; Which else should free have wrought.
Banquo	All’s well. I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters: To you they have show’d some truth.
Macbeth	I think not of them: Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve, We would spend it in some words upon that business, If you would grant the time.
Banquo	At your kind’st leisure.
Macbeth	If you shall cleave to my consent, when ’tis, It shall make honour for you.
Banquo	So I lose none In seeking to augment it, but still keep My bosom franchised and allegiance clear, I shall be counsell’d.
Macbeth	Good repose the while!
Banquo	Thanks, sir: the like to you! Exeunt Banquo and Fleance.
Macbeth	Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready, She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed. Exit Servant. Is this a dagger which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain? I see thee yet, in form as palpable As this which now I draw. Thou marshall’st me the way that I was going; And such an instrument I was to use. Mine eyes are made the fools o’ the other senses, Or else worth all the rest; I see thee still, And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood, Which was not so before. There’s no such thing: It is the bloody business which informs Thus to mine eyes. Now o’er the one half-world Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse The curtain’d sleep; witchcraft celebrates Pale Hecate’s offerings, and wither’d murder, Alarum’d by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl’s his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin’s ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth, Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear Thy very stones prate of my whereabout, And take the present horror from the time, Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives: Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives. A bell rings. I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell That summons thee to heaven or to hell. Exit.

Scene II

The same.

	Enter Lady Macbeth.
Lady Macbeth	That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold; What hath quench’d them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman, Which gives the stern’st good-night. He is about it: The doors are open; and the surfeited grooms Do mock their charge with snores: I have drugg’d their possets, That death and nature do contend about them, Whether they live or die.
Macbeth	Within. Who’s there? what, ho!
Lady Macbeth	Alack, I am afraid they have awaked, And ’tis not done. The attempt and not the deed Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready; He could not miss ’em. Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done’t.
	Enter Macbeth.
	My husband!
Macbeth	I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
Lady Macbeth	I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. Did not you speak?
Macbeth	When?
Lady Macbeth	Now.
Macbeth	As I descended?
Lady Macbeth	Ay.
Macbeth	Hark! Who lies i’ the second chamber?
Lady Macbeth	Donalbain.
Macbeth	This is a sorry sight. Looking on his hands.
Lady Macbeth	A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
Macbeth	There’s one did laugh in’s sleep, and one cried “Murder!” That they did wake each other: I stood and heard them: But they did say their prayers, and address’d them Again to sleep.
Lady Macbeth	There are two lodged together.
Macbeth	One cried “God bless us!” and “Amen” the other; As they had seen me with these hangman’s hands. Listening their fear, I could not say “Amen,” When they did say “God bless us!”
Lady Macbeth	Consider it not so deeply.
Macbeth	But wherefore could not I pronounce “Amen”? I had most need of blessing, and “Amen” Stuck in my throat.
Lady Macbeth	These deeds must not be thought After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
Macbeth	Methought I heard a voice cry “Sleep no more! Macbeth does murder sleep,” the innocent sleep, Sleep that knits up the ravell’d sleave of care, The death of each day’s life, sore labour’s bath, Balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course, Chief nourisher in life’s feast⁠—
Lady Macbeth	What do you mean?
Macbeth	Still it cried “Sleep no more!” to all the house: “Glamis hath murder’d sleep, and therefore Cawdor Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more.”
Lady Macbeth	Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy thane, You do unbend your noble strength, to think So brainsickly of things. Go get some water, And wash this filthy witness from your hand. Why did you bring these daggers from the place? They must lie there: go carry them; and smear The sleepy grooms with blood.
Macbeth	I’ll go no more: I am afraid to think what I have done; Look on’t again I dare not.
Lady Macbeth	Infirm of purpose! Give me the daggers: the